All these Indians spin the thread, of which they make their nets, of a kind of teasel. These teasels are pounded and thrown into muddy pools; after leaving them there fifteen days, they take them out and scrape them with mussel-shells; the fibre is then clean and white as snow.
This tribe, unlike others, has no chief; they are all fishers and woodsmen, inhabiting the borders of the country. These, and all the other people living on the river by which we were now passing, would not suffer any Spaniard or Guaraní to land. In order that they should not molest his people, the governor distributed some presents among them, and told them of the other ships that were following with his friends, whom he begged them to receive and entertain well.
Continuing the voyage one Friday morning, we arrived at a rapid, where the river passes between steep rocks. Large quantities of gold-fish (dorados) descend this rapid, and it was the largest rapid we had yet met with. We passed it sailing and rowing. Here the Spaniards and Indians caught in one hour large quantities of gold-fish, as many as forty of them being taken by one man. These fish are so big that they weigh half an arroba[348] each, and some as much as one arroba. They are excellent eating, the head being the best part. A quantity of oil is extracted from these fish, and those who eat of it become fat and sleek. Broth made of them, if taken continuously for a month, cures skin diseases and leprosy.
[348] The arroba is a Spanish weight, equal to twenty-five pounds of sixteen ounces each.
Continuing the voyage with a fair wind, the governor arrived, on the evening of the 25th October, at a place where the river divides into three channels. One arm forms a great lagoon, which the Indians call the Black River; it runs towards the north into the interior of the country. The other arms, in which the water is of a good colour, reunite a little way further down. The governor continued his navigation till he came to the mouth of a river which flows into the interior of the country to the left, towards the west. Here the Paraguai loses itself in a number of other river channels and lagoons. And the navigation is so intricate that the Indians themselves, who are always navigating them, have difficulty in distinguishing one from the other, and often lose their way. The river now entered by the governor is called by the natives Yguatu,[349] meaning “good water.” It flows towards the lagoon in our favour. Hitherto we had been ascending against the current; we now went down stream.
[349] I believe the name is Igatú, now Jaurú.